14 Signs of Narcissism

“Narcissism” is not the first word that comes to my mind when the topic of Wikipediocracy’s Vigilant (Reddit WOVigilant) comes up. I don’t think of narcissists as infected with vicious hatred. Sociopath seems more fitting. However, one of the EVilgent’s traits is proposing for others what may much more clearly apply to him, and he posted this earlier today:

I don’t understand actual human behavior. It is a mystery why people do things.
How many of these traits does Abd exemplify?
video 14 Signs of Narcissism

The first link is to a comment of mine on WikipediaSucks.co, which expresses nothing like what he makes of it. Then the video is a list of signs (nothing other than text and music).

  1. Narcissists make a great first impression. They practice being charming, charismatic, engaging and sociable and they get really good at it. They want you to be interested in them, constantly paying attention to everything they say and do. They tend to be great in job interviews and on first dates. But they are quick to ignore or dismiss you if you don’t give them the flattery and adulation they believe they deserve.
  2. They like to show off their “trophies.” They try — often in obvious ways, but not always — to impress you with their life accomplishments, education, material possessions, income, or social status. They’re “serial name droppers.”
  3. They tend to think of themselves, and everything they do, in grand terms. Many (but not all) narcissists act “loud and proud.” They use superlatives a lot to describe what they’ve done, what they are doing, or what they’re going to do. Narcissists tell stories centering on themselves, often in heroic terms, and they tend to repeat the same story to a new audience every chance they get.
  4. Physical appearance matters — a lot. The way they look, and everything about it, is especially important. They obsess over details in their physique or figure, their clothes and the way they dress, how their hair looks, and so on.
  5. Flattery is the fuel that keeps you in a narcissist’s good graces. They “fish for compliments,” but when none are forthcoming, they ignore you or react in other negative ways.
  6. They hate criticism. Any hint of criticism draws a strong, often angry response. No one likes criticism, but narcissists are hyper-reactive, and take it very personally. They tend to see the world in terms of “me versus them.” They’ll get angry, shut out or ignore the person who criticises them, or even “throw a tantrum.”
  7. They blame someone else — anyone else — when something goes wrong. They are often quick to judge, condemn, and ridicule. If they forget to do something, they’ll say it’s your fault because you didn’t remind them. A favorite line you’re likely to hear from a narcissist is, “Now look what you made me do…”
  8. They dominate conversations and talk almost exclusively about themselves. Even if you change the subject, they’ll find a way to bring it back to themselves. They’ll only ask what you think if they’re hoping you’ll flatter or compliment them somehow. They always want  you to agree with them. If you don’t, your comments will probably be disputed, corrected, dismissed, or ignored.
  9. Similarly, they often interrupt others who are talking. They sometimes ask a question, but then don’t let the other person complete a sentence before talking over them, or challenging them before they have a chance to finish a thought.
  10. They feel entitled to break rules or ignore social norms. They believe, as the saying goes, “Rules don’t apply to me.” They routinely (and sometimes dangerously) flout traffic laws, find ways to berate waitstaff in restaurants, borrow things but never return them, skip appointments without canceling ahead of time, etc. They expect preferential treatment in all things, expecting others to know heir needs instinctively.
  11. They demand loyalty, but don’t return it. Narcissists think little or nothing of cheating on a spouse or partner, but become enraged if someone does it to them. They expect everyone to make sacrifices for them, but often won’t express gratitude when others “put themselves out.”
  12. They manipulate people, often in negative or hurtful ways. Guilt is one of their favorite weapons. They like to act as if you’ve victimized them somehow. A typical comment would be, “I’ve given you so much, and you’ve given me nothing in return.”
  13. They lack empathy. They don’t realize — or don’t care — the trouble and heartache they’ve caused others. The feelings and emotions of other people don’t matter to them, and they have very little regard for pain or heartache others experience.
  14. They like to create chaos and leave a trail of wreckage behind them. They enjoy playing people against each other because keeping others off balance makes them feel powerful.They like to watch others fail, or suffer personal or professional humiliation — especially if they can have a hand in causing it.


While many people are guilty of narcissistic behaviors from time to time, true narcissists exhibit many or all of them constantly. Unfortunately, most narcissists don’t even know they’re narcissists, and therefore have little concern for how their behavior affects everyone around them.

This was pop psychology, ontologically naive, useless other than to support someone accusing someone else of narcissism — which is a real problem, often showing up as “male privilege” in relationships. The name will not heal the dysfunctional behavior, unless the clueless one — running through this is a theme that the “narcissist” is not aware of it, i.e, is clueless — recognizes the problem and takes on creating remedies, which isn’t easy with a lifetime of habit and even training. Narcissism can be fatal to relationships.

Now, how many of these traits do I “have.” Most of these are about personal and face-to-face relationships; as well, the traits mind-read the narcissist, not only does the person do such and such, but the motive is asserted. But applying this to myself, I can ask, “Is that what I want?” (For none of them is that what I want if it happens.)

And many of the factual claims are far, far from what I do or ever have done. Always respectful to waitstaff, I have never insulted them. I take no pleasure in the failure of others, not ever. (But I encourage responsibility — very different from blame and guilt.)

So what about the other way around? EVilgent held up this mirror, how does he look in it? For most  these we have no information, because he avoids telling us about himself, except in . . . grandiose terms. “Holding shitheels’ feet to the fire for a decade.” I do see recent and strong evidence of revenge as a motive, for a what could have been taken as criticism. And which very much became critique.

But I don’t see the problem as narciscissm, rather as hatred, evil projected strongly onto others, often with little — or no — evidence. He takes obvious glee in condemnation and contempt for alleged (or real) sins, and treats what he calls “defense” of bad people as “enabling” very bad things, when nothing like that happened.

The page supra shows how this outpouring proceeded from a small “insult,” a conclusory description, that represented consensus where stated. So he is blaming me for how the community sees him.

(And his first response was deleted, so he’s stayed away from that subreddit since.) Criticising the Great EVilgent, unforgiveable! 

Synthestech scam?

It’s come to my attention that there is a company, Synthestech, which has, for about a year, been running an Initial Coin Offering, as an investment in “Cold Transmutation of Chemical Elements.”

Low Energy Nuclear Reactions, which Sythestech is promoting, are real, or at least there are reports by competent and reputable scientists that there are such reactions. However, the state of the art is far, far from any commercial potential, and there have been many scammers in the history of LENR. Reading the Synthestech material, I see no sign that they have a clue how to make this work, reproducibly and practically. There have been many, many researchers working on the problems for many years, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested, with little practical result. If this does show up, it is unlikely to be through an activity using very shaky fundraising techniques.

If one wants to invest in LENR, which must be considered extremely high risk at this time, –expect to lose your money  I would suggest Industrial Heat, which does not accept most private investment at this time. At least, though, they are supporting genuine research and it is possible they will get lucky. For the general public, Woodford Patient Capital Trust is invested in Industrial Heat, so it’s possible to buy in, I know a few people who have modest stakes — and a few with much larger stakes. This is, however, more of a way to spend one’s money than to get rich. There was a revaluation lately that looked good. It may or may not mean anything.

Again, I’ll emphasize, this is truly high risk, I am aware of no technology close to commercialization. Andrea Rossi was (and remains) a fraud.

Speaking of Rossi, Sythestech uses his name. In their “White Paper,” they have:

Andrea Rossi was one of
the first entrepreneurs who adopted the LENR technology. In collaboration with Sergio Focardi, he created a device based on the principles of LENR-reactions, which generated electricity. In recent years, many installations that generate electricity have been built secretly.

That’s total BS. Rossi has not claimed the generation of elecricity. He did claim to be operating a megawatt reactor in Florida, and it was secret for a time, but all this blew up in 2016, becoming highly public in the lawsuit, Rossi v. Darden. There was a plant, but it was not generating a megawatt, if it was generating anything, and the odds are high that it was generating nothing, it was just a big electric water heater, maybe 30 KW.

Rossi comes up again in the interview in Entrepreneur

Your whitepaper ICO mentions modern nuclear technology. Do you also develop advanced nuclear technologies? Could you tell us more about this?

In fact, the field has become more popular than ever. Latest advancements in portable power generation devices developed by Andrea Rossi and progress in obtaining platinum from tungsten by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, indicate that Cold Transmutation has gained real-world traction.

There are no “portable power generation devices developed by Andrea Rossi.” There has been work on certain transmutations by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (the work of Iwamura), but it was not “platinum from tungsten” and was not even close to commercial possibility. Synthestech is doing a lot of name-dropping, making it seem like there is support for their plans. There is not, not from the scientists in the field, not as far as has been shown.

There are so many signs of scam, frenzied hype, that I’m not researching this further, there are many more interesting things to work on, with the real science of LENR. I’m putting this up to warn investors that, while LENR is real, that is, there are real nuclear effects at apparently low initiation energies, the evidence has become overwhelming, the effects remain very difficult to control, they are “unreliable,” generally, in spite of many years of effort to develop control. The best minds in the field are searching for a “lab rat,” a simple experiment that could be widely confirmed. It does not yet exist.

(The evidence for the reality of LENR does not depend on reliability of generating the effect. Rather, the circumstantial evidence is the many reports of anomalous heat, the many reports of anomalous tritium, and then the direct evidence that measured helium is correlated with the heat, at a ratio consistent within experimental error of that expected from fusion. (This does not require that the reaction be “d-d fusion.” Any process that starts with deuterium and ends with helium will show that ratio, it must, if there are no leakages.)

David Gerard, not exactly a friend, has a post on Synthestech. He has his head wedged in a dark place on LENR, but he’s right that Synthestech is a scam. It has many, many marks of deception. However:

Karabanov announced his breakthrough in a press release and press conference in August 2016 — because science by press conference, rather than a published paper detailing an experiment and how to reproduce it, is standard in cold fusion:

It is not “standard in cold fusion.” There were press conferences in 1989, on both sides of the cold fusion controversy, but the real science is not conducted by press conference. There are over 1500 papers on cold fusion published in mainstream journals and if we add in conference proceedings, which sometimes include papers of equal or better quality than what is in journals, it’s roughly 5000 papers. David Gerard is repeating a series of tired old arguments against cold fusion. He has no clue what really happened in 1989-1990 and later, just a pile of vague ideas, second-hand knowledge, not actually researched, repeating the common opinions of the ignorant as if fact.

The problem is not that “cold nuclear transmutation” is impossible, it’s not, but that it is, so far, at best, a laboratory curiosity, not a commercial possibility, except in the most remote sense.Maybe. Some day. If.

Dismissals like that of David Gerard are obviously pseudoskeptical and will have no effect or influence on those who might be interested in investing. Steve Krivit was correct that Rossi was a scammer, but because his evidence was circumstantial and vague, dependent on ad-hominem arguments and inferences, it did not prevent investment in Rossi.

There are many Russian researchers working with LENR, they have long been prominent in the field. I see no sign, so far, that Synthestech is working with the real scientists in the field, though they drop their names, such as Vysotskii and Kornilova. I found that apparently Yuri Bazhutov, the late well-known Russian LENR researcher, has been called an “advisor” to Synthestech. See this obituary.

That points to a Sythestech interview of Bazhutov. I had noticed that Sythestech has claimed to have been an observer at RCCNT&BL in 2017, and the interview was allegedly conducted there. There is only one very brief mention of Synthestech in the interview:

What can you say about “Synthestech” and your visit to the Sochi laboratory?

We were pleased to know that there is a new group in Russia that is studying the same phenomena. It’s very pleasant that there is such a team as “Synthestech”, because the winner is the one who moves.

That is simply a casual comment, non-committal, and not surprising. This is far from an endorsement of the actual company, or its accomplishments. Many entrepreneurs have induced scientists to be called “advisors.” It’s basically meaningless, particularly when the company is unknown and the scientist has little reason to suspect a scam. I have seen scientists, later, distance themselves from such companies, when the way they were operating became clear.

Again, if one wants to support LENR research, I recommend becoming knowledgeable as a first step. There are many ways to support increased awareness of the real work that has been done. Tossing money at overheated investment scams is not one of them. Contact me if interested in supportive activity.

On more point: the original research that Karabanov of Synthestech appropriate was biological transmutation. To those that believe cold fusion or cold nuclear transmutation is impossible, biological transmutation will seem preposterous.

However, there are nuclear effects in condensed matter, that appear to involve unusual structures that allow a collective effect, rather than the brute-force collision effect of hot fusion. This is all poorly understood, but the evidence of nuclear anomalies is overwhelming, and if it can happen in the lab, at low energies, it is easily conceivable that life would find a way to use it, and there is substantial work on biological transmutation, by serious and highly experienced scientists (such as Vysotskii, whose name gets dropped by Karabanov). Most of this is not yet confirmed.

Karabanov is attempting to sell something that might be possible, almost certainly before its time. Here is a page covering some of that research by those identified as Karabanov’s partners. It looks like Karabanov abandoned the biological approach, and he claims to have industrial processes. No evidence has appeared of this. When challenged with, “If you can transmute elements, why do you need the bitcoin investments?” (he could just make precious metals), his answer is that the experiments only produce milligrams of material. I think he is exaggerating even there, if not outright lying, but what is a few orders of magnitude among friends?

Something is stupid on the internet

Actually, on Rossi’s blog. This has become so unsurprising that I intend to stop covering it unless asked.

Planet Rossi thinks of Rossi as a great genius, and he is often asked about scientific questions. I have previously shown how he commonly has little clue what he’s talking about, his knowledge is shallow, as might be expected from a jailhouse student, as he was. (Though the “electrical engineering” involved here I originally learned early in high school.) This shallow knowledge is distinct from the issue of whether or not he has a real technology, but it can have an impact on how he talks about it.

(By the way, I was a prison chaplain, and knew many intelligent prisoners. I am simply pointing out the possible limitations of prison study. One will not have the benefit of a community of study, it’s isolated and generally solitary. Unless one is taking a correspondence course — some do — there will be no testing, no writing of papers for professorial review, no opportunity to make mistakes and be corrected, which is the fastest way to learn.) Continue reading “Something is stupid on the internet”

Lying with facts

On LENR Forum, SSC has been writing deceptive after deceptive post, sometimes with clear error, but other times reporting facts that SSC would reasonably know, if he were careful, would mislead.

(Fact, presented out of context, can be highly misleading. Rossi often used this in his legal arguments in Miami. Partial truth can be perjury, distinct  from “the whole truth.”)

Here is one from just an hour ago:

SSC wrote:

Shane D. wrote:

I am pretty impressed with TD’s comments Abd so kindly provided. He sounds sincere, and truly committed to the humanitarian first, money second aspect in his search for a working LENR tech. Definitely at odds with the unflattering picture IH haters here painted. By their depiction, the “greedy bastard” should have pulled his money out of LENR by now, and gone back to real estate. Instead, he is continuing on with his LENR quest. Good on him!

You base your judgment on the words that Darden said, while his detractors are based on the facts.

He is lying; if he believes what he wrote, he is being without caution in repeating the deceptive claims of others, so he can earn the reward of those who lie.

Darden can tell all the fables he wants, he can say that his first thought when he wakes up every morning is to save the world and he can even tell you that money does not matter to him. But are you really willing to believe him? Did you read the Cherokee – Zeneca case?

I certainly have. I have researched it in detail. First of all, as is common in the Cherokee libels, there is no discrimination between Darden and Cherokee Investment Partners and the various LLCs that are created for specific projects.

I will not be checking every fact alleged by SSC, but most of this appears factual; however, it simply does not show what he is claiming. What, in fact, is he claiming, exactly? He is presenting facts about this case as if they reflect on Darden’s sincerity. How? Continue reading “Lying with facts”

Cherokee Investment Partners

Cherokee Investment Partners (CIP) has very little to do with LENR other than this: in 2012, the CEO of CIP, Thomas Darden, wanted to investigate investment possibilities in LENR, and the CIP reputation probably helped Darden to gain access to Andrea Rossi. Cherokee also assisted Darden and others in starting up Industrial Heat (IH).

In his opening statement in Rossi v. Darden, Chaiken, Rossi’s attorney, claimed that Cherokee had provided half of the initial $1.5 million payment (for the Plant) that secured the License Agreement, and Rossi included Cherokee in his lawsuit (in spite of serious legal problems with that).

(Apparently the $750,000 was a personal loan to Darden, not an investment, for CIP ended up with no IH stock, as far as we know, and no IH Holdings International, Ltd. (IHHI) stock in the stock swap that bought out IH shareholders entirely.)

Back then, Darden et al were considered heroes by Planet Rossi. However, when Rossi sued them, everything flipped, and suddenly everything Cherokee was presented as fraud and ripping off the taxpayers and the like. Documents have been dredged up purporting to show great misbehavior, and even though it is now totally irrelevant to Rossi affairs, some of Rossi’s followers keep beating the drum.

A recent comment on Sifferkoll’s blog theorizes that Darden et al settled because of embarrassing “revelations” about CIP on Sifferkoll’s blog. It disappeared?

This Sifferkoll post is dated 7/3/2017, two days before the parties unexpectedly settled in court:

Are Tom Darden and the Cherokee Lawyer “Sharks” Deliberately Leaving out Important Information in their SEC Filings?

Notice the headline doesn’t actually make a statement, it asks a question. That’s a common Sifferkoll tactic: Ask a question and then present misleading evidence that could seem to point to the answer he believes or wants to wag in front of his audience.

Planet Rossi reads Sifferkoll as Holy Writ. So, sure enough, we have this on LENR Forum:

SSC wrote:

guest111 wrote:

Someone should make a call to the Florida Dept. of Revenue, and IRS, [about a possibility that Rossi did not pay all his taxes.]

This was completely dumb, it would be a total waste of time unless one has personal knowledge or a very good and very specific case to show from public documents (and I don’t think it exists on this point. A stronger case might be made for perjury, and even there I’m told by an attorney that a complaint to state or federal prosecutors would probably be a waste of time. But I would not claim it is “impossible.”) Then SSC goes into nutty brilliance:

The same person should also contact the SEC and warn it that Cherokee has lied in its March statement, because at the question : “You are actively engaged in business as a real estate broker, dealer, or agent.” they answer : “ none “, despite all the related companies engaged in real estate activity (brownfields are by definition a real estate activity in so far they are not just remediation but also revitalization by building and selling housing and commercial centers).

SSC doesn’t cite the actual document nor does he give a source. All too common on Planet Rossi. Sifferkoll, however, dumps a mass of mostly irrelevant detail on us. In this case, though, he is referencing a prior post by SSC. I’ll get back to that.

The actual form being discussed is here.

That’s a complex form, 33 pages. Sifferkoll and SSC imagine that Cherokee should have answered certain questions differently, but that’s apparently an error.

Planet Rossi, in general, has no comprehension of what CIP actually does. They are “investment advisors,” which is why SEC statements are required.

I have seen nothing that indicates that CIP is engaged in real estate activity, per se. Rather, it advises other organizations that do this. CIP doesn’t build and sell housing, but advised LLCs might (and, I think, do). “Real estate broker, dealer, or agent” is quite specific in meaning, legally. CIP is not one of these. They are investment advisors. An investment advisor might give advice on investing in real estate, but does not thereby become a broker, dealer, or agent, and, in fact, it could create a conflict of interest, which is probably why the SEC asks the question.

The individual advised LLCs may do this. As well, CIP may have some investment in them, which does not make them brokers, dealers or agents.

This is typical of Planet Rossi FUD on CIP.

SSC continued:

Moreover at the question “Are you actively engaged in any other business not listed in Item 6.A ( that is other than giving investment advice)?” they answer: “no”, which is an omission, because Cherokee had to declare that it is actively engaged in another business with IH and others. Finally at the question “Has any domestic or foreign court in the past ten years, enjoined you or any advisory affiliate in connection with any investment-related activity?” they answer : “ no”, making an omission because they did not declare the story of Ashley II of Charleston LLC , an affiliate which had some trouble with the Law.

No, CIP did not declare that. Rossi claimed that. Further, CIP was not enjoined, and “trouble with the law” is vague. If I’m correct, Ashley II is in bankruptcy, which means Cherokee, if CIP invested in Ashley, lost money (as did other investors). It also means that whatever happened there is likely to be closely scrutinized. Nothing is alleged here that shows any violation of regulations, just fevered imaginations.

Cherokee was not engaged in business with IH. They provided a minimal level of support to their CEO, Darden (office space and a little staff support, IH claims to have reimbursed for that), and no investment, and had no ownership interest in IH. This is all clear from documents in Rossi v. Darden, where Rossi was desperate to find evidence of Cherokee ownership and essentially came up empty.

For an investment advisor (as CIP is) to leave out “important information” in an SEC filing would be asking for major expenses and possible fines. These filings are prepared by experts, generally, but are here being analyzed by a fanatic who already has his mind made up and is clueless about what is actually happening.

In the claims about CIP, Planet Rossi often completely confuses the situation of an individual project LLC with the situation of CIP. Each LLC is legally independent, and has its own responsible board and its own officers, and, as well, its own set of investors with voting rights, etc. SSC imagines that the existence of some people who are common to the various organizations would create legal identity. It doesn’t. There are narrow situations where it might, under some circumstances. Those circumstances are not alleged. This is all ignorant nonsense.

So Ashley II might be subject to some court order. That does not subject CIP to the order, unless the Court included CIP (and apparently did not). CIP, or more likely one of the managed funds, may be an investor in Ashley II. That does not create any liability beyond the possible loss of their investment. This is all standard corporate law.

The Cherokee family of LLCs operates as they do, because they take on very risky projects. If they did them as Cherokee, the entire structure could come down from one mistake. So, like any corporation, the individual LLCs are responsible to their own investors (shareholders) and for following the law and regulations in the areas where they operate. CIP itself advises those who want to follow the advice. It may help collect the investors. It will disclose risks, etc. It is subject to law and regulations governing investment advisors.

The prior post by SSC goes into great detail founded on the interpretive errors described here. The same lack of analytical skill and caution that led Planet Rossi into hosts of errors, and that continues to do so, are shown here: (SSC’s comment)

Item 11 H (1) (a) Question : “Has any domestic or foreign court in the past ten years, enjoined you or any advisory affiliate in connection with any investment-related activity?”

Cherokee’s answer : “ No”.

SSC knows that the precise meanings of terms is crucial, and quotes SEC definitions:

– Advisory Affiliate : Your advisory affiliates are (1) all of your officers, partners, or directors (or any person performing similar functions);(2) all persons directly or indirectly controlling or controlled by you; and (3) all of your current employees( other than employees performing only clerical, administrative, support or similar functions).
– Enjoined: This term includes being subject to a mandatory injunction, prohibitory injunction, preliminary injunction, or temporary restraining order.
– Investment-Related: Activities that pertain to securities, commodities, banking, insurance, or real estate ( including, but not limited to, acting as or being associated with an investment adviser, broker-dealer, municipal securities dealer, government securities broker or dealer, issuer, investment company, futures sponsor, bank, or savings association).

The application of each one of these by SSC is problematic. His strongest point would be a claim that the Ashley II injunction was “investment-related,” because the key issue was the liability of Ashley II as an owner of property (“investor in property”) requiring environmental remediation. My opinion is no, it would not be that, the intention of the regulations wouldn’t include ownership of real estate and injunctions relating to that as covered, but this is a place where a company like CIP would obtain professional advice, and if they follow professional advice, and absent clear and specific intention to violate regulations, this wouldn’t be a criminal offense, even if the disclosure were required. So set this one aside as possibly establishing that Ashley II was “so enjoined,” and we will see about the others.

An order or injunction will specify who is ordered or enjoined. Who is that? Is it CIP? Is it an officer of CIP? Apparently not. SSC’s interpretation would be impossible to implement. How would a corporation know about all their employees, even key employees? That language is there to avoid a corporation hiding behind an employee, when the issue being asked about is actually corporate business.

An extension of this to CIP is very unlikely, and it would not be criminal to overlook such a fact, if it existed. It would be an error, and it would only be criminal if deliberate. I.e., if they knew something was to be reported and hid it.

The order applying to Ashley II does not apply to CIP, even if there is an officer or investor in Ashley II who is connected with CIP. The court order applies to Ashley II, not to officers or investors in that LLC. If I own shares in a corporation, and that corporation is ordered to pay for remediation work, that order does not require me to do anything. Likewise, an officer would not personally be subject to the order to pay: if the corporation is bankrupt — which happens! –, the ordered costs just get tossed in the hopper to take their place with other debts. The investors only get what is left over after all debts are paid, if anything. Their entire investment is at risk, but only that, not more.

Only if an officer has improperly absconded with corporate funds would there be some possible personal liability. Sifferkoll and SSC are totally confused.


On LENR Forum, ele wrote:

Wyttenbach wrote:

Spoiling 50 Billions of public money is honest,

This was actually off-topic. The reference is to ITER, and the point is obtuse, like much from Wyttenbach. There are certainly problems with ITER, and we might wish that some fraction of the ITER budget would go to a possible alternative, basic LENR research that might establish the possibility of an alternative to hot fusion, but Wyttenbach’s objection, the difficulty of shielding against neutrons, is a known problem with known solutions. They actually use the neutrons to generate more tritium fuel. That is quite well-known physics. Hot fusion is a very difficult engineering problem, to be sure. But so is LENR, and hot fusion is understood, whereas LENR is not.

With no excuse other than he wants to, ele uses this to praise Rossi and toss mud at Darden, but it’s all insane.

Just to note. Rossi never asked or used public money for the Ecat. This is a quite important fact,

Rossi did attempt to get governmental funding, before 2011. His demonstrations flopped, and while he was told he was welcome to come back and try again, he never went back. Further, note that ele says “for the Ecat,” but then comparing to Darden, he doesn’t specify what the funding is for, nor whether or not Darden was personally involved. He is confusing Darden not only with IH — which did not solicit public money — with Cherokee, which also does not solicit public money, but facilitates the formation of individual projects, which sometimes do, and then a generic project to obtain “tax credits” for use by investors in those individual projects was confused by Planet Rossi as “public money,” when it isn’t.

It is a governmental activity designed to encourage investment in remediation projects. Some remediation projects fail. That’s life. That does not necessarily mean that funds were “wasted,” one would need to look at details, which Planet Rossi never does, being content with findings some words they can use abstracted from reality to make the points they want to make.

In contrast seems that Darden has obtained and wasted a huge quantity of public money,

No, Darden has not obtained any public money, as far as I’ve seen. Nor has Cherokee. Some specific projects have obtained grants for environmental remediation. I think there may have been a hundred projects (I don’t know the number). A few, very few, have failed. When one of these projects fails, there could be hundreds of millions of dollars of investment involved (of which maybe $25 million was Cherokee seed-money, that they lose, along with other investors). Each project has its own investors and its own management, being legally independent, and this is essential for operation in a very risky business area. Buying pieces of contaminated real estate, one can become legally responsible for clean-up, which can be astonishingly expensive. Cherokee has managed to do this well enough to prosper and grow, apparently.

However, Rossi did clearly ask for public money with his thermoelectric generators. How did that work out? I don’t know about public money with Petrol Dragon, but public money was or is certainly involved in the necessary clean-up in Italy.

And there is no point, in context, to ele’s defense and attack. Rossi was not being accused of wasting public money, and Darden was an erroneous target, and all this could be is a continuation of the Rossi Good Darden Bad inertia of ele. This has absolutely nothing to do with the topic in this thread, the Gullstrom-Rossi paper. It distracts from it. Is that the purpose?

ele and certain others are repeating these fraudulent allegations over and over, knowing, perhaps, that if they say it often enough, others will then take these “facts” up, and repeat them, believing them.

If Rossi has any influence on these people, he should tell them to STFU. They are not helping him, they will stimulate response, some of which will point out more sustainable allegations against Rossi. None of this will help Rossi move forward with his development project.

If Rossi is encouraging this activity behind the scenes, he is continuing to harm himself. He dodged a bullet once, maybe he thinks he can do it again.

How to drastically overvalue a company




Mats Lewan interview



Here’s The Settlement—Getting The License Back Was Rossi’s Top Priority

July 18, 2017 Uncategorized






























































































So you invented the technology used by JM?



Can you describe the technology?















So how much thermal power could the heat exchanger dissipate?

“One megawatt.“


And you didn’t have any photos of the heat exchanger?
























Pump capacity













































“About 75 l/h.”


The brochure linked above has this at the very beginning:















Finally—what happened to your hair?


















Now the fun can start!






The document defining the terms of the settlement.


Rossi’s notes addressing the Expert Report by Rick Smith.

Rossi’s notes regarding arguments raised by Joseph A. Murray.







Abd ulRahman Lomax July 20, 2017 at 18:33

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

for an alternate point of view, this interview is studied at http://coldfusioncommunity.net/mats-lewan-interview/


It is August 20. Still awaiting moderation.

April 1, 2019.

The comment never appeared. I looked at this today because it came up in another comment. There have been a total of 24 comments approved. My comment was left, I infer from the time of this post, on July 18, 2017. There were nine fawning comments left that day. Most comments continued to be full of praise for the interview, except those I cover below, plus the most recent comments were not on that post, but on other issues.

truthseeking2015 July 19, 2017 at 03:44

I wish Mr. Rossi had not used the “failed to provide evidence” languaje, that is known to be the kind of languaje of people witholding truth.

I will agree, particularly that there were mountains of evidence provided under oath in discovery in this case, and other evidence (such as Rossi emails) attested as authentic with no challenge. “No evidence” is an obvious falsehood, and Lewan personally confirms this deception. Quoting him:

I am confident that if Rossi were really involved in fraud, evidence for that would have been found during the time—a year and a half—since IH claimed to have started to be suspicious about Rossi. Looking back and noting that no such evidence was found [. . . ]

To maintain that position requires ignoring a veritable mountain of evidence. Now, in a trial, it will all be presented to a jury, but if there was no evidence, the IH countersuit would have been dismissed. Lewan is ignorant of legal process and of the facts of the case, and does not appear to have read the evidence, he reacted from . . . I don’t know what? Rossi’s baby face?

I have to say that the whole process of the lawsuit left me with the impression Mr. Rossi was not an honest person, in spite that it also left me with the impression that the persons behind IH are also not honest.

A lack of honesty on the part of Rossi was obvious from many Rossi documents, he admitted in one to deceiving his prior associates at HydroFusion. The “independent customer” in Doral was nothing other than Rossi, hiding under a trust created by Rossi’s attorney and entirely managed and controlled by Rossi. That’s only part of it! This was not denied by Rossi and his attorneys

Hence, the fact that they both preferred to settle than submit them to the proverbial fecal matter flinging show, confirms me they both preferred to hide things than putting all it to public light.

I don’t see that IH settled to hide things. They had never wanted the lawsuit, Rossi forced it. They then defended themselves. There were about nine attorneys in that courtroom, suppose we figure $1000 per day per attorney. (I think that is conservative. So $9000 per day. The trial was estimated to be five weeks. Plus it was taking up the time of the CEO of Cherokee Limited Partners, a $2.2 billion corporation. The costs of trial then may be estimated very conservatively at $225,000. IH damages would be technically limited, they could not prove, my guess, that there had been fraud in the Validation Test in Italy, though it all stank. They could not recover, then, the $11.5 million they had paid Rossi, even if the technology was worthless (as they appear to have concluded, or they would not have settled as they did). They could readily claim damages for the expenses of the move to Doral and other related expenses they paid. But recovering this could have been problematic. Nobody was paying them to “put it all to public light.” I’m not sure that I’d have chosen as they did, but what I saw in that courtroom was that everyone was happy, certainly the attorneys on both sides were happy! So they should fight it out in court so that “truthseeking2015“, anonymous, sees the shitstorm he wants? If TruthSeeking loves and seeks the truth, why does he or she (very unlikely “she’) hide behind anonymity?

In the direction of the choice they made, they may have believed that the world was now protected from Rossi claims, because of all the evidence that became public in that trial. I agree, it is all there to be seen by anyone who is considering investment in Rossi technology, how he treats his investors.

And if an investor wants to believe the various conspiracy theories, well, a fool and his money are soon parted, one way or another. Rossi did commit perjury, my opinion, but someone would have to convince prosecutors in Florida to spent their time investigating this. It’s not worth my time, and I have no desire to beat the old man with sticks. I actually like him (as have most who have met him.) But let’s put it this way. He is an inventor, an inventor of fantastic stories, that he embellishes in great detail, and about which he puts on shows that interest some, even many.

The only thing that I find interesting now about this settlement release is the accompanying notes of Rossi. No one would write such detailed notes if had no a real machine working. This opened for me a slight chance that, after all, Mr. Rossi does has something working as he says. I will not hold my breath, but at least this gives me a reason to keep an eye on whatever Mr. Rossi has on schedule.

“TruthSeeking” will not find the truth using the methods of inference employed. Rossi would have created extensive notes for his attorneys, already. Rossi did not have a “real machine working,” at least not, for sure, generating a megawatt. This was always a problem. Since 2011, when Rossi announced that his megawatt reactor was available for sale, many noted that a 20 kW reactor would be far more useful and far easier to test. The megawatt reactor was just a pile of 20 kW reactors. Why was it made so complicated? In any case, Rossi’s expert agreed with the IH expert, that if no heat exchanger were built that could dissipate that kind of power, the warehouse would have reached fatal temperature levels internally. The temperature of the warehouse is a rough calorimeter. Rossi gives completely bogus arguments on Lewan’s blog post. And if anyone doubts that, I suggest asking for clarification. This is not marginal. Had the case gone to trial, Rossi would have been exposed to a prosecution for perjury, a criminal offense. The evidence, far from being non-existent, as Lewan claimed, was abundant. Hiding a megawatt of power is very difficult!

Marijuana growers were busted, many times, because they tried to hide much less power, in the apartments and other places where they grew the plant under artificial lights, perhaps 20 – 30 kW. They would stand out like a sore thumb with infrared imaging devices.

(There is a rumor that IH had IR satellite data, but did not use it because of difficulties with chain-of-custody issues. I should ask, actually. The Settlement Agreement did not require them to not comment, and Rossi certainly commented!)

Peter Metz July 20, 2017 at 17:18


This has been very extensively discussed on Lenr-Forum, and a Rossi supporter actually tested a pump. However, this is typical for Lenr-Forum. There is no way to easily search for the final report.

This is all, however, a red herring. Yes, it was presented in the opening arguments by IH. It was one of the easiest arguments to understand, as presented. Was the engineer correct? Rossi’s story about this requires that he use the pumps to the limit of their capacity, to a level not guaranteed, at best. Apparently there were also only 18 units functioning by the end of the “test.” (So the full capacity would be much smaller). Further, Rossi claimed to be operating much or most of the time in “self-sustain mode,” with no power input. With no power input the only control would be pump rate. Would you operate a steam reactor, depending on cooling to prevent runaway, pushing the pumps to the limit? I’ll discuss this more if someone finds the report.

But, like the issue of the flow meter (crucial to Rossi’s measurements), equipment was used outside of prudent operating ranges, creating many opportunities for error or misinterpretation. Those were metering pumps. What were the settings? They were not free-run pumps that would pump whatever depending on power input and pressure. It’s been some time since I looked at the manual, but my sense is that 32 l/hr is the maximum setting!

Okay, I never checked this and I don’t recall anyone discussing this aspect. The pump manual specifications page is here. The pump is the gamma L 0232. That has a rated capacity per stroke (full length, I assume) of 2.96 ml at back pressure 2 bar, and 3.35 ml at 1 bar. 0 bar is unreasonable, but using that, I’d estimate single stroke capacity at 0 bar of 3.74 ml. The maximum stroke rate is 180 strokes per minute (see. p. 19.) That yields a maximum pump rate at 0 bar of 40 liters per hour. The label was 32 liters per hour, at 2 bar. Using the 2 bar figure, it works out to 32 liters per hour. Yes. That is the maximum setting!

The Rossi arguments on this are insane. The pump capacity will indeed vary with pressure, but only a little. It’s a metering pump! Modifying the argument to consider this small variation, 24 pumps could only cool by evaporation 600 kW. If the reactors were actually producing a megawatt as claimed, they would have failed from overheating (perhaps spectacularly!). Those pumps did not have enough capacity. 400 kW uncooled in a small space, it would heat very rapidly.

And if we consider the claims that the  plant was still producing a megawatt with only 18 units operating, the capacity is even smaller, 450 kW.

I cannot seem to find this in the Smith Expert Report and elsewhere. It’s probably my mistake but I’ve looked now including the reports and depositions including Murray’s. I know this was discussed on the blogs but this specially says Expert Report by Rick A. Smith and Rossi seems think IH’s defense hinges entirely on this so it’s important to me that this gets verified including the context in which it was stated. A page number or other link would be helpful. Thanks.

This was a piece of the IH defense, not necessarily the core of it. Here is the IH opening argument (from the second presentation). (It followed the Rossi argument.)

I will remind readers that these are both attorney arguments. They are not testimony under oath, this is a framing the attorneys are allowed to give, a story that the jurors might use to place the evidence they will see in the trial itself. While that evidence has generally been disclosed, not all of it is public, only what was asserted in connection with various pleadings and motions was published. The pump issue is brought up on p. 141. It is given a few words, in a relatively long statement. This is far from the core of their defense. Rossi, however, is focusing on what he thinks he can attack, and perhaps he can.

Peter Metz July 20, 2017 at 17:38

OK. I found it. It’s in the Supplemental Report produced by Smith, report page 16.

Link: http://coldfusioncommunity.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/0235.10_Exhibit_10.pdf#page=16 [added the page link –Abd]

In the report the name plate says ‘DOSIERLEISTUNG 32l/h’ which Smith translates to ‘dosing capacity or maximum flow.’ This clearly differs from the pump guide which states minimum flow. Why Smith, presumably an expert on pumps, made this translation which conflicts with the manual we can only guess. It clearly invalidates this part of Smiths analysis if the pump guide is correct. I will also add that it seems to me Rossi is overstating his case here that the entire Smith Report depends on this analysis.

Sorry for the confusion.

The expert, Smith, did overlook the pressure specification. What the actual operating pressure was is unclear. If the reactor is producing steam, this will create pressure from resistance to flow in the system, up to the condenser. So 0 bar is unreasonable. But perhaps it was less than 2 bar, so perhaps Smith erred in figuring maximum capacity, but his calculation was based on the full complement of 24 pumps operating, when only pumps feeding the active reactors would be relevant with 18 pumps operating. The substance of this part of his report stands in spite of the possible error, not to mention the rest.

What I assume is that Smith had in mind that these were metering pumps, with the “maximum capacity” being full stroke at the maximum rate. The difference with pressure is small. So he was basically correct. And Metz is also correct that Rossi, even if we accept the error, was drastically overstating his case. And Lewan does not notice any of this, or if he does, keeps his mouth shut. I see no sign that Lewan has understood any of these issues.

Dan Peter August 9, 2017 at 22:52

DEar Mats, Why don’t you interview the other part

Mats Lewan August 9, 2017 at 23:03

Dan, Darden promised me an interview 2 years ago. I have asked him several times to do it, and I also asked JT Vaughn, but they never answered my emails or phone calls. Last time I asked was just a few weeks ago. No answer.

If I read what Mats had written, I’d decline an interview also. Mats rejected commentary from Dewey Weaver, an IH insider. Getting an interview with the officers of a multi-billion dollar corporation is not easy. He would have other ways of obtaining response.  For example, I was at the trial, and was, before that, very familiar with the evidence, so I knew what I was seeing. I’ve been interviewed by Ruby Carat for her podcast series. And if I thought that IH should issue a statement, I could get the message to them., there are open channels. Generally, they have no interest in internet debates. Dewey shows up sometimes in them. He is generally representing himself, but, more privately, he sometimes speaks for IH.

Mats has never involved himself with the general CMNS community, it is all Rossi this and Rossi that. Indeed, that IH engaged with the full cold fusion community is what enraged Rossi. He thought of that whole community as his “competitors.” It’s obvious in the interview.

Rossi is not and has never been a scientist, and his interest is not benefit for humanity, but rather for his personal goals. Mats has seen plenty that would enable him to understand this, including the HydroFusion deception. Has he read what Rossi wrote about that? Here, a free gift, Rossi’s email, if he gets as far as reading this. Mats was at that test, it is covered in his book, pp 236-243. Either Rossi lied to Darden and Vaughn, or to Mats and HydroFusion, or both. Take your pick.



The drama continues



Takes a licking and keeps on ticking

Just like a Rossi demo! (Those were the days! Live TV!)

The occasion for this brilliant wit, a masterpiece, if I say so myself, and I do, is ele’s continued citation of the Cherokee legal stuff, even though it is completely irrelevant to the topic, Cherokee is an LLC that makes risky investments, and a few fail, and the accounting is complex, and with that, an SEC settlement of $100,000 for an accounting error, with no finding of intention to defraud anyone, is SOP, and equivalent to me being fined $0.05. Yet to ele, this is “very interesting.”

I covered this first on Ele mental my dear, posted 5/18/2017 at 5:10 PM. So today I see another post from ele on the same topic. 5/18/2017 12:41 PM. Continue reading “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking”